Last Updated on May 16, 2024
CHSPE ELA Reading Pretest 2024. Try our California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) English Language Arts (ELA) Reading Pretest sample question with answer keys. You can also download it in PDF. It may help your CHSPE test prep better.
CHSPE ELA Reading Pretest
| Test Name | CHSPE Practice Test |
| Section | Reading |
| Region | California |
| Test Type | Multiple choice question |
| Total Questions | 20 |
| Questions type | Sample test |
Read this text. Then answer the questions.
Excerpt from Life on the Mississippi
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world—four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. It discharges three times as much water as the St. Lawrence, twenty-five times as much as the Rhine, and three hundred and thirty-eight times as much as the Thames. No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its water supply from twenty-eight States and Territories; from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope—a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude. The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels …
It is a remarkable river in this: that instead of widening toward its mouth, it grows narrower; grows narrower and deeper. From the junction of the Ohio to a point half way down to the sea, the width averages a mile in high water: thence to the sea the width steadily diminishes, until, at the ‘Passes,’ above the mouth, it is but little over half a mile. At the junction of the Ohio the Mississippi’s depth is eighty-seven feet; the depth increases gradually, reaching one hundred and twentynine just above the mouth …
An article in the New Orleans ‘Times-Democrat,’ based upon reports of able engineers, states that the river annually empties four hundred and six million tons of mud into the Gulf of Mexico—which brings to mind Captain Marryat’s rude name for the Mississippi—‘the Great Sewer.’ This mud, solidified, would make a mass a mile square and two hundred and forty-one feet high.
The Mississippi is remarkable in still another way—its disposition to make prodigious jumps by cutting through narrow necks of land, and thus straightening and shortening itself. More than once it has shortened itself thirty miles at a single jump! These cut-offs have had curious effects: they have thrown several river towns out into the rural districts, and built up sand bars and forests in front of them. The town of Delta used to be three miles below Vicksburg: a recent cutoff has radically changed the position, and Delta is now two miles above Vicksburg.
Both of these river towns have been retired to the country by that cut-off. A cut-off plays havoc with boundary lines and jurisdictions: for instance, a man is living in the State of Mississippi to-day, a cut-off occurs to-night, and to-morrow the man finds himself and his land over on the other side of the river, within the boundaries and subject to the laws of the State of Louisiana! Such a thing, happening in the upper river in the old times, could have transferred a slave from Missouri to Illinois and made a free man of him.
Q1. Which of these statements from the text supports the idea that the Mississippi River is exceptional?
- A. It has changed the location of several towns from riverside to rural.
- B. It is eighty-seven feet deep at the junction of the Ohio River.
- C. It is half a mile wide in the area near the “Passes.”
- D. It empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Q2. Read this excerpt from the text.
The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels.
As used in the passage, the word navigable is closest in meaning to
- A. seafaring
- B. dark blue
- C. passable
- D. blocked
Q3. Read this excerpt from the text.
A cut-off plays havoc with boundary lines and jurisdictions: for instance, a man is living in the State of Mississippi to-day, a cut-off occurs to-night, and to-morrow the man finds himself and his land over on the other side of the river, within the boundaries and subject to the laws of the State of Louisiana! Such a thing, happening in the upper river in the old times, could have transferred a slave from Missouri to Illinois and made a free man of him.
Why does the author write that “Such a thing, happening in the upper river in the old times, could have transferred a slave from Missouri to Illinois and made a free man of him”?
- A. to explain that the river passes through both slave and free territory
- B. to show that the river’s cut-offs could have a dramatic effect
- C. to stress that he is writing after the end of the Civil War
- D. to make an implicit criticism of slavery
Q4. What detail from the text tells you that the Mississippi River is exceptionally crooked?
- A. Its depth increases gradually from eighty-seven to one hundred and twenty-nine feet.
- B. It discharges twenty-five times as much water as the Rhine.
- C. One part of it is over twice as long as it would be as the crow flies.
- D. It draws its water from twenty-eight states and territories.
Q5. The author mentions Captain Marryat, who calls the Mississippi River “the Great Sewer.” This phrase refers to
- A. the remarkable amount of mud the river discharges
- B. the fact that the river is unusually polluted
- C. the lack of respect that river captains have for the river
- D. the idea that people discharge a remarkable amount of sewage into the river
Q6. Read this excerpt from the text.
The Mississippi is remarkable in still another way—its disposition to make prodigious jumps by cutting through narrow necks of land, and thus straightening and shortening itself.
The author uses the word prodigious to show
- A. his bewilderment at the river’s twists and turns
- B. his concern for the river’s unpredictability
- C. his fear of the river’s instability
- D. his admiration for the river’s jumps
Q7. The author creates a picture of a remarkable river by
- A. showing the causes and effects of the river’s size
- B. providing facts and examples about the river
- C. explaining the problems the river has created
- D. describing the beauty of the river and its surroundings
Read this poem. Then answer the questions.
Excerpt from Poems, Three Series, Complete
Emily Dickinson
VI.
If you were coming in the fall,
I’d brush the summer by
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.
If I could see you in a year,
I’d wind the months in balls,
And put them each in separate drawers,
Until their time befalls.
If only centuries delayed,
I’d count them on my hand,
Subtracting till my fingers dropped
Into Van Diemen’s land.
If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I’d toss it yonder like a rind,
And taste eternity.
But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time’s uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting.
Q8. Why does the poet start four of the poem’s stanzas with the word if?
- A. to ask a question about why the beloved has gone
- B. to show the randomness of life
- C. to stress the uncertainty of the beloved’s return
- D. to reveal the unpredictability of love
Q9. The major themes of the poem are
- A. seasons and rebirth
- B. separation and time
- C. fear and longing
- D. sorrow and death
Q10. How does the tone of the last stanza differ from the previous four stanzas?
- A. It is more unsure and chilling.
- B. It is dreamier and happier.
- C. It is more anticipatory.
- D. It is less unhappy.
Q11. Reread the final stanza.
But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time’s uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting.
The speaker compares time to a “goblin bee” to show that time
- A. moves quickly and invisibly
- B. is dangerous to catch
- C. can do either good or bad
- D. torments and can hurt her
Q12. Over the five stanzas, the speaker becomes
- A. comfortable
- B. impatient
- C. calm
- D. indifferent
Q13. The person whom the speaker addresses is
- A. herself
- B. someone who is threatened by bees
- C. someone she loves who is away
- D. someone who has died
Read this text. Then answer the questions.
Tulip Mania!
Diane Zahler
We’re used to considering certain objects valuable —works by well-known artists, for example, or diamonds, designer clothing, and cars made by a handful of specialized companies. But for a brief, outrageous time in the 1600s, there was a commodity considered so valuable it was almost priceless: tulips.
Tulips came to Europe from Turkey in the 1550s, when the Sultan of Turkey sent tulip bulbs, from which the flowers grow, to Vienna. The colorful flowers took well to the cold northern climate, and almost immediately Europeans, and especially the Dutch, went wild for them. To the Dutch, tulips became a symbol of the new and the exciting.
The delicate, beautiful blooms became a kind of currency. Bulbs of new kinds of tulips could fetch absurdly high prices. The most popular tulips in the 1630s were those with streaks or stripes on their petals. The Dutch didn’t know it, but those stripes were caused by a virus. The virus weakened the plant, making it less likely to bloom well in years to come. Although these bulbs were the most valuable, they also became the least likely to pay off in beautiful flowers or future sales. The value of these exotic flowers rose and rose, and the bulbs themselves became a kind of money. Merchants of all sorts became involved in the tulip trade, and speculation, in which buyers purchase risky investments that present the possibility of large profits, but also pose a higher-than-average possibility of loss, caused prices to rise still more. There was a report in 1635 of a sale of 40 tulip bulbs bought for 100,000 florins. That was nearly ten times what a skilled laborer would earn in a year.
In that year, the tulip trade changed. Up until then, tulips were bought and sold in summer, after the flower had bloomed. The bulb would be dug from the ground, wrapped up, and kept dry and safe indoors. Sellers sold the bulbs when they were dug up, and buyers paid for them when they were delivered. However, in 1635, sellers began to sell tulips by weight while the bulbs were still in the ground, with a note for the buyer describing the bulb, including its weight at planting and when it would be dug up. Only the paper notes were sold; the bulbs themselves could not be delivered for months to come. This “futures market” in tulips resulted in the paper notes being sold and resold, always at higher prices. People began to wonder if the bulbs would actually be worth the money they were costing. At the same time, tulip farmers were planting more and more bulbs, which made the tulips worth less money, as they were becoming less rare.
The combination of investor worry and an oversupply of tulips led the tulip market to crash in February of 1637. The price of tulips could go no higher. Most tulips that ended up actually being sold were purchased for about five percent of what had been promised, and many merchants were utterly ruined. Tulip mania, a bizarre and short-lived phenomenon, was over.
Q14. Which detail best supports the idea that tulips were overvalued?
- A. To the Dutch, tulips became a symbol of the new and the exciting.
- B. There was a report in 1635 of a sale of 40 tulip bulbs bought for 100,000 florins.
- C. The most popular tulips in the 1630s were those with streaks or stripes on their petals.
- D. Sellers sold the bulbs when they were dug up, and buyers paid for them when they were delivered.
Q15. The Dutch created an exaggerated market for tulip bulbs because
- A. they had no currency of their own
- B. they had always valued flowers over money
- C. they were drawn to the newness and excitement of tulips
- D. there were few markets for their other goods
Q16. Read this excerpt from the text.
However, in 1635, sellers began to sell tulips by weight while the bulbs were still in the ground, with a note for the buyer describing the bulb, including its weight at planting and when it would be dug up. Only the paper notes were sold; the bulbs themselves could not be delivered for months to come. This “futures market” in tulips resulted in the paper notes being sold and resold, always at higher prices. Based on the passage, what is a “futures market”?
- A. the sale of something that will be available in the future
- B. selling something that will be paid for in the future
- C. a flower market that will be set up in the future
- D. a store where people arrange to pay in the future
Q17. Which of these events led to the eventual crash of the tulip market?
- A. Tulips were bought and sold in summer.
- B. There was an oversupply of tulips.
- C. Many merchants were ruined.
- D. Tulips sold for five percent of what they had been worth.
Q18. The author’s use of the words outrageous, bizarre, and absurdly shows that she thinks
- A. tulip mania is amusing
- B. tulips are worthless
- C. tulip mania is baffling
- D. the Dutch are interesting
Q19. Read this excerpt from the text.
But for a brief time in the 1600s, there was a commodity considered so valuable it was almost priceless: tulips.
Based on this sentence, what does the word commodity mean?
- A. ordinarily
- B. money
- C. sale
- D. product
Q20. The third and fourth paragraphs of the text explain how
- A. the Dutch became so fond of tulips
- B. greed contributed to the overvaluing of tulips
- C. people began to doubt the worth of tulips
- D. tulips came to northern Europe
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